Dear Readers,
At long last, it’s here: The History on Drugs podcast. It’s been a long time coming, as I explain in the introduction to the episode (and as I explained to paid subscribers last Wednesday).
My guest this week is James Bradford of the Berklee College of Music. It’s a great conversation. James is a really interesting guy with a really fascinating story, and he generously shares a lot of it here. We talk about his growing up in Maine, youthful drug use, families and addiction, becoming a historian, Afghanistan, 1920s Parisian drug busts, opium, cannabis, music and drugs, the opioid epidemic, and more. After listening, even my non-historian wife said: “Wow, that was really interesting.” So there’s your recommendation. It maybe gets a little too “inside baseball” about the Alcohol and Drugs History Society in the middle, but we return to broader topics (e.g. the opioid epidemic) toward the end.
As I note in the introduction to the interview, there are a bunch of people and organizations that we talk about and don’t totally explain. I’ve created a list of these below with relevant links.
You can also listen on other Podcast platforms. Here are the relevant links:
In any case, I hope you’ll listen. If you enjoy this first episode, please “like” and subscribe via your preferred podcast platform. I would appreciate it.
Ok, here are some notes on people and things mentioned in the podcast in close to the order they appear:
The Drug Page is a website that I created. It brings my research on marijuana in the United States to a broader public.
SeepeopleS is James’s brother’s band.
The Alcohol and Drugs History Society (ADHS) is our professional association.
Emily Dufton is a historian who has written about marijuana in the United States.
Haggai Ram is a historian who’s been mentioned in this newsletter a number of times. He’s written about hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel.
Erika Dyck is a historian and current president of the ADHS. She’s writes a lot about psychedelics.
David Herzberg is a historian who has written a lot about drugs and the pharmaceutical industry in the United States.
David Courtwright is the dean of American drug historians. He has been mentioned many times on this newsletter. He coined the terms “limbic capitalism,” “psychoactive revolution,” and more.
Paul Gootenberg is the dean of Latin American drug historians. He has written a lot about cocaine. He was also on my doctoral committee many moons ago.
Oliver Dinius is a historian of Brazil and was a colleague of mine in graduate school.
Matthew Connelly is a historian of international and global history and my first mentor in this business.
James Mills is a historian who has worked on cannabis in the British empire and cocaine in Asia.
Patricia Barton is a historian of pharmacy and drugs in the British empire.
Stephen Snelders is a historian who writes about drugs in the Netherlands and beyond.
Lucas Richert is a historian of pharmacy and psychedelics.
David Guba is a historian who has written about cannabis in France.
Ethan Nadelmann is a drug-policy-reform legend (and friend of this newsletter). He’s also got a very interesting podcast of his own.
Episode #1: Opium, Afghanistan, and the Life of a Historian, with James Bradford